February had set in. Fru Egholm’s seventh was making ever stronger
demands on her heart’s blood. While she toiled at her work, the young
citizen to come was pleased to kick about occasionally, or turn over on
the other side, making her faint and dizzy. But, recovering, she would
smile, and whisper softly: “There there, now, bide your time, little
man.” She had her own convictions that it was to be a boy.
Egholm stood in front of the mirror, smoothing his wreath of hair. His
pupil was due for the English lesson.
“The Pupil” was a subject of considerable importance in the house,
especially to Egholm’s own mind. It was no other than Meilby, the
sharp-tongued photographer, who had started taking lessons in the
previous November. After many mysterious hints, and exacting a promise
of silence, he had confided to Egholm that he was going to America
in a few months’ time. Egholm had grabbed at him avidly and without
ceremony, as a chance of work. Regarded as a pupil, he was by no means
promising. He had but the faintest conception of any difference
between parts of speech such as substantives and adjectives, and
whenever his mentor touched on genitives and possessives, he would
glance absently towards the door. Furthermore, he never paid any fees,
which was a subject of constant tribulation between Anna and her
husband.
“But it’s a good thing to have a little outstanding. Like capital in
the bank, against a rainy day.”
Anna made no answer to this. It seemed to her mind that the days were
rainy enough to call for all the capital by any means available.
Egholm sniffed vigorously, and postponed the matter further. But now
it was February, and he must raise the question somehow. He smoothed
his hair with extra attention, to make the most of his dignity when
the pupil arrived. Unfortunately, he could hardly point to the goods
delivered and demand payment in cash--the goods were so little in
evidence.
It passed off better than he had expected. Meilby said “Good evening”
in English when he arrived, and laughed a little nervously, as if
dismayed at his own courage. Egholm snatched at the opening, and came
to the point at once:
“That’s right, that’s right--you’re getting on. Getting on, yes. But
don’t you think, now, you might let me have a little on account?”
Meilby laughed no more. Money--it was always such a nuisance about
money. There didn’t seem to be any money these days. Money was a thing
extinct, he said.
“On earth, yes,” Egholm admitted.
But no need to bother about that. It would be all right. Only wait to
the end of the month, and then it would be decided. “Whether I’m to go
or not,” said Meilby.
Of course, he didn’t want to go. Much rather stay where he was. But,
of course, he would go all the same. What else could he do? And if he
went, why, then, of course, Egholm would get his money. That was how it
stood. How else could it be?
Egholm was very far from understanding, but he gave it up. Opening the
book, he got to work at the lesson, but with less careful attention,
perhaps, than usual. And after a little he broke in, cutting short his
pupil in the middle of a sentence:
“But about the money--how will you get the money if you do go?”
“Why, then, of course, I shall sell all my apparatus.”
So that was it. Egholm still seemed troubled in his mind. He knew the
collection of things that formed Meilby’s stock-in-trade. There was one
item in particular--that devilish camera of his. It was quite a small
one, but with a breadth of focus that could almost look round a corner.
Fancy having that for his own! There would be an end of poverty then!
The windows of heaven should be opened, and the flood pour in--oh, in
no time. He knew it, he felt sure of it. But the belly was not to be
put off, not for so much as a day. And his hands were impatient too;
there was a nervous thrill at the roots of the nails, or a deadly chill
in the fingers from sheer inactivity. Every morning he raced about
after the situations vacant in the papers, but always in vain. With
Meilby’s apparatus, he could make money--ay, though his studio had no
roof but the February sky.
He grew quite genial towards his pupil, and praised him more than was
properly his due. When they had finished with their brainwork for the
evening, he said anxiously:
“But, promise me you don’t go selling them without letting me know.”
Meilby would bear it in mind.
“Yes, but suppose you forgot?”
“Why, we’ll be none the less friends for that,” said Meilby, with an
amiable smile.
“You’ll get nothing out of him, you see,” said Anna when he had gone.
“It’ll be just the same with him as with young Karlsen, when he came to
learn English, too. Huh! It was you that learned something that time,
if you ask me.”
“He’s an artful one,” said Egholm, with a laugh. “He tricked the doctor
when he went to be examined. But, after all--what’s a trifle like that
when a man stands firm on the rock of truth?”
“Do you think Meilby does? You think it’s for any good he’s going
running off to America like that?”
Egholm, law-abiding man, paled at the thought, but said, with an
attempt at liveliness:
“I’ll get him to stay, then.”
“But he won’t pay you at all unless he goes.”
That, again, was true--painfully true. No ... anyhow, Egholm would have
nothing to do with any doubtful affairs. Not for any price. Better let
Meilby go his own gait as soon as he pleased.
But even as he formed the thought, he seemed to feel the milled edges
of the screws that set the camera between his fingers, and with a sigh
he breathed the resolution from him once more.
* * * * *
One morning, a few days later, Egholm came back from his usual round.
“No luck, I suppose?”
“No, no, no,” he snarled, flinging off his hat. Then he took down the
Bible.
What could have happened to make his hands shake like that?
A few minutes later came the explanation.
“I went after a job--Hansen and Tvede, it was--as errand boy. Told them
they could have me a full day’s work just for my food. But they laughed
at me. Oh, and there was a beast of a fellow in riding-boots--the
manager, perhaps. You should have seen his face.”
“Perhaps he meant it wasn’t the sort of thing they could offer you.
Something better,” hinted Fru Egholm.
He made no answer, but strove to calm his indignation by strenuous
attention to the Bible. If that didn’t help him, why, then.... But he
was nearly through with it now--it was the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The letters danced and crept like ants before his eyes.
“_And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office
of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people
according to the law, that is, of their brethren...._”
“Ha ha! Riding-boots and all! No, ’twasn’t that he meant, giving me
something better. The beast! I shan’t forget him!”
“_For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change
also of the law...._”
“‘I see from the paper you’re wanting an errand boy’--that’s what I
said to him. And asked if I would do. And I crushed my hat in my hands
and stood up. Then, of course, what he ought to have said was, ‘What,
_you_ looking for a place as errand boy? No, no. Couldn’t think of it.
I’ll take you on in the office, as a clerk. You shall be cashier. I’ve
taken a fancy to you, the way you stand there modestly as could be.’
But he didn’t say that, not a word of it. Good Lord, no! The worst of
it was, he saw through me. _He winked at me!_”
“_For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before
for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof._
“_For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God._”
Egholm sighed, and passed his hand over his face. Alas, he noted to his
shame how his thoughts had strayed from the Bible’s lofty theme.
What could it be for a commandment, that was disannulled for the
weakness and unprofitableness thereof, he wondered. H’m, it would
say farther on, no doubt. And he read on, but it did not appear to
say. Then he went back and began again, reading slowly, in a whisper,
the same verses over again. And of a sudden, his heart contracted
violently, forcing a spout of blood to his temples. What--what was
this? Was it _the tithe_ that was abolished?
He read it through again and again.
“Anna”--he dared not trust his own senses now--“Anna, come here and
look at this. Quick--read from there to there.” He stood as if about
to strike; there were red spots on his pale face. Anna trembled with
fear, and fell to reading about Melchisedec, the Levites, and the rest,
without understanding a word of it all.
“Well, why don’t you speak, woman?” broke in Egholm, when she had
been reading a few seconds. “Are you asleep?--or, perhaps it doesn’t
interest you? Eh? Now, then, what is it you’re reading?--what do you
make of it? Eh?”
“Yes, yes, I see,” stammered Fru Egholm, her eyes flitting to another
part altogether in her confusion--“something about the Tabernacle....”
“Is the tithe abolished?--that’s what I want to know,” said Egholm
insistently. “Does it say there, or does it not, that the tithe is weak
and unprofitable?”
“Why, yes--but that’s what I’ve always said,” answered she, with
marvellous presence of mind. “Was it only that you wanted me to see?”
Egholm looked her up and down contemptuously.
A moment later he was tearing down the street with the big family Bible
all uncovered under one arm.
Oh, but this was the most wonderful day of his life! The Bible itself
had revealed its darkest secrets to him--_to him alone_. What would
they say, all those whose minds were yet in darkness? what would old
Angel Karlsen say? what would young Evangelist Karlsen look like with
his wrinkled face--when they heard that the Community of the Brethren
of St. John was built on sand--nay, upon a swamp, into the bottomless
depth of which their money sank never to be seen again? _He, Egholm,
was a new Luther_, wielding the Bible as a mighty club against heresy
and false doctrine. They would have to make him Angel, ay, Archangel,
after this. In every land where the Brethren of St. John were known,
his name would be named with honour. He would write a new Book of Laws
for the Brotherhood, and it should be translated into seven tongues.
Into seven tongues! Almost like a new Bible.
Karlsen’s shop was at a corner of the market square. It was a very old
house, with a steep red roof. At the bottom two small windows had been
let in to make it look like a shop, and through them one could discern,
in spite of a thick layer of cobwebs and dust, the rows of shelves with
yellow jars in all sizes. The modest store was suited to the taste of
the peasant customers. They could stand for ages pondering over the
choice of a shovel or rake, and weighing it in the hand. Karlsen was
understood to be a wealthy man.
Egholm inquired of a chilblainy youth if he could speak with Angel
Karlsen.
H’m. He didn’t know. Would go in and ask.
“Say it’s something of importance,” said Egholm.
As the door in the corner was opened, Egholm heard a sound of voices in
dispute from the office beyond. Two voices--and he could not recognise
either. Or was it--yes, surely that was old Karlsen’s, after all?
Egholm listened in wonder, as one might listen to a familiar air played
out of time or at a different pace.
“Call me a scoundrel if you like,” shouted the one, a nasal trumpeting
voice with a twang of city jargon--“call me a thief, a convict, or
anything you damn well please, but I won’t be called a fool!”
“But the contract, the contract, the contract!” screamed out the
angelic voice of Karlsen the Elder.
No, the young man was sorry, Hr. Karlsen could not possibly see him
just now. He was engaged with one of the travellers.
“Well, I must see him, anyhow,” said Egholm more soberly.
They were at it again inside, and his knock was unheeded. Then suddenly
the whole seemed to collapse in a cascade of laughter.
He knocked again, and walked in. There was old Karlsen, his face
unevenly flushed, with a fat cigar sticking out of his beard, and
before him a bright-eyed, elegantly dressed commercial traveller, who
slapped the Angel’s outstretched hand repeatedly, both men laughing at
the top of their voices.
“Beg pardon, Hr. Karlsen--er--would you kindly read this?...” Where was
it now? Egholm began helplessly turning the pages of his Bible.
“Hullo, here’s somebody wants to save our souls, by the look of it,”
said the elegant one, with a tentative laugh.
“Didn’t my young man out there tell you I was engaged?” said old
Karlsen angrily, turning aside.
“But it’s a discovery I’ve made--it’s of the utmost importance. A
wonderful find--here in the Holy Scripture itself. Read it, here--it’s
only a few lines. I can hardly believe my own senses. Read it--there!”
“But, my dear friend,” said the Angel, “you can see for yourself I’m
engaged. We’re in the middle of important business.”
“Let me read just three words to you.”
“No, no, no, I won’t have it, I say.”
Egholm stood with hectic cheeks; his former respect for the Angel still
checked any actual outburst of fury, but from the look of him, it was
doubtful what might happen next.
“This is not the proper place to discuss the word of God, nor the
proper time, nor the mood for it, either. Come round again this
evening, my dear Egholm. At eight, say, and then we can talk over
whatever it is that’s troubling you.”
The commercial plucked him by the sleeve. “I thought you were coming
round to the hotel--_Postgaarden_, you said.”
“Er--well, we might say _to-morrow_ evening at eight,” corrected the
Angel. “Yes, come round to-morrow, Egholm; that will do.”
Egholm drew himself up and shot sparks, but said nothing. He shut up
the clasp of his Bible with a snap.
“Have a cigar, won’t you?” said the Angel, offering the box.
“No, thank you.”
“Yes, yes, do. They’re none so bad--what, Hr. Nathan?”
Hr. Nathan uttered a curious sound--an articulate shudder, as it
were--and looked quizzically at the box.
“I don’t smoke.”
“Well, then, a glass of port?”
“I’ve other things to think about than drinking wine. The fate of the
Brotherhood lies in my hand. In _my_ hand. I’m going round to the
Deacon now.”
“No, really? He he! Are you really? Well, well,” said Karlsen, with
that strangely jovial angel voice of his, that Egholm knew so well, and
yet found strange....